Day of Remembrance for Victims of Political Repression and Hunger in Kazakhstan (31/05)

May 31 in Kazakhstan is a memorable date – Day of Remembrance for Victims of Political Repression and Hunger, established by Decree of the President of the Republic № 3443 of April 5, 1997.

It’s just such a story that in the 20-30s of the last century, Kazakhstan, in addition to experiencing a terrible and difficult period of hungry years and political repression along with the entire country, had the sad fate of becoming a special place in the system of political terror.

Initially, the Kazakh SSR, as a remote region within the USSR, became the homeland for many representatives of the social class, which belonged to the category of unreliable, who returned from forced emigration. These people were called hostile towards the Soviet government and capable of actions that undermine its authority or generally harm the development of the young state. According to the authorities, it was not only undesirable for them to remain in the European part of the USSR, in large cities in the center of the country, but also contraindicated.

Some deliberately voluntarily remained to live in Kazakhstan, returning to their homeland from emigration, while others were forcibly evicted there as belonging to the category of unreliable citizens. Thus, even new settlements of deported USSR citizens appeared in Kazakhstan. At the same time, supervision over them by the NKVD has never weakened. Many of the deported people were re-convicted, leaving the settlements for camps, or sentenced to death. Kazakhstan became one of the regions of the Soviet Union where a whole network of camps of the Gulag system appeared. Over 5 million citizens from all over the country were sent here.

Many political prisoners never managed to be released, waiting for fair rehabilitation. They died in camps from hunger, hard work, and disease. It should be noted that the rehabilitation process has not been completed to this day. Work continues with archival documents, allowing us to find the truth, even not for the once prisoners themselves, but for their children and relatives, having achieved recognition that their ancestors were convicted illegally and unfairly. Thanks to this process, someone generally hopes to find at least some traces of their family and friends who disappeared forever and without a trace in the Gulag.

In April 1993, a law was adopted in Kazakhstan, according to which the work of special commissions for the rehabilitation of victims of mass political repression on the territory of the Republic began.

On this day, they remember not only those people who innocently died, disappeared or suffered from political repression, lost their home, being forcibly deported, but also others: those who died of hunger during the years of collectivization.

During that terrible period, every people of the Soviet Union suffered. It is necessary to pay tribute and express gratitude to the Kazakh people, who received many people in their homeland who were not there of their own free will, helped them survive in a difficult life situation, without leaving them to their fate. The Kazakh people themselves suffered no less than others during the years of mass political repression. Many prominent figures of science and art were sent to the camps. Eternal memory to all innocent victims.

In the Akmola region of Kazakhstan, on the site of one of the Gulag camps «ALZHIR», a memorial was created in memory of all those who innocently died during the years of mass repression.

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